Sacrifice

Sacrifice: if you tried to boil Christ’s life down to one word, what would it be?  Think about it awhile, I’ll wait.  He had a pretty cushy gig as God’s right-hand man before He was sent to dwell among us pagans.  Come on, sitting at the right hand of God, surrounded by angels singing praises.  Would you trade that to be born in a manger, in a stable?  As the saying goes; were you born in a barn?  Christ was.

He gave up a lot of His earthly childhood to studies, now there is a rarity in today’s culture.  He was in the rabbi’s dust at an early age and soon, vise versa.

That water to wine thing could have made Him very popular with the party scene of the day, but He only did that one time.  Gave it up.  He wasn’t hip with the ”in crowd”, because of His beliefs, but it was worth the sacrifice to Him.

If He had just played by society’s rules and used His gifts to His advantage, He could have been king of the world.  Instead, He lived a nomadic life relying  on God and the kindness of strangers for His sustinance.

All of this pales to His ultimate sacrifice, dying a criminal’s death, to gain not His own salvation, but ours.  Falsely convicted, beaten, stabbed, hands and feet nailed painfully to a cross, collasping lungs gasping, trying to suck in life giving breath, and He asked God to forgive who?  Me.

What am I sacrificing?  I find myself thinking often about excess and sacrifice nowadays.  Am I blessed or cursed to live in a society that has so much at its disposal and believes it deserves so much more?  I complain about my house payment while knowing that I have more house than I need, yet others go homeless.  And in that over-sized house is an over-sized closet with more clothes than I can wear, yet others lack adequate clothing.  And around my waist are a few extra pound, yet many ache with the pains of hunger. 

I fear that this excess is not a relative thing.  How am I going to justify/rationalize my abundance when so many have so little?  Will the “need” to make my house payment be justification to not give more?  How many coats can I wear at one time?  Can I rationalize away even one person shivering in the cold?

With only 3 to 11% of “Christians” tithing, I think there is a lot of rationalizing going on.  (Save the Abraham’s verses Mosaic law of tithing for another time or the Internetmonk)  I don’t know, but I believe the answers can be found on my knees.

What am I sacrificing?  And to what or whom?  Missed placed values have caused countless financial excesses, which have caused time commitment excesses, which is a “beast” that has to be fed.  Have the house, car, clothes and standard of living become an idol that requires my time and money?  At what cost?  The financial cost (however significant) might be cheap in comparison to the eternal cost.

Christ could have easily been king of the world by sacrificing His beliefs and values, but He did not.  However, His sacrifices made Him Lord of heaven and earth.

What are you sacrificing and to whom?

Thinking out loud, RT.